Music: Loudville Expands Studios, Services

Mark Keller’s Loudville Studios (formerly Boomtown) in Sausalito, Calif., has received a thoughtful makeover: The facility, which has been providing music recording and mixing services for more than 19 years, was rewired and re-equipped to add video recording and broadcast capabilities.

Mark Keller’s Loudville Studios (formerly Boomtown) in Sausalito, Calif., has received a thoughtful makeover: The facility, which has been providing music recording and mixing services for more than 19 years, was rewired and re-equipped to add video recording and broadcast capabilities.

“We wanted to evolve into something greater that would make clients want to do their music project here and capture as much as they want on video, or go live,” says Keller. “We added a video control room; our video room and audio room talk to each other. We also installed four robotic cameras: three in our big live room and one in the iso booth. Now clients can shoot their video, broadcast over TV or the Web in front of a live audience of up to 30, seated in our mezzanine area, or they can be creating B-roll during a recording session.”

On the audio side, Keller purchased an Avid D-Command and Pro Tools HD; monitoring is via Genelec 8240A 5.1 surrounds. Senior audio engineers Paul Simmans and Mathew Trogner are enjoying the rush of applying their studio expertise in a new setting. “With the live shows, we use a lot of the same stuff that we would in a studio recording,” says Trogner. “So we’re using our nice preamps and mics and a lot of things that you might not typically see on live recordings.”

One thing that hasn’t changed at Loudville: The studio is still home to Keller’s voice-over work; he links via ISDN lines to studios on both coasts, providing narration for top clients such as the National Geographic Channel and CBS, for whom he recently completed the new season of Undercover Boss.